Curtis Pith is an amazing cook who is always cooking up something delicious for his mom and younger sister Paige. And every Wednesday night he tunes into his favorite show: The Super Chef. Curtis has a secret, the Super Chef, Lucas Taylor, is his absentee father. Things at home aren’t always easy as his single mom struggles to keep jobs and pay the rent. So, when Lucas Taylor announces the final season of the Super Chef is going to a kids only season with a grand prize of $250,000, Curtis decides to enter in the hopes that the money will help his mom out and he can finally meet his father.
This is a book that is full of action and emotions. You are right there in the competition with Curtis Pith as he tries to win for his mom and navigate a relationship with his father. The story has themes of family, self-confidence, friendship, and the future. Throughout the competition the kids are learning about 5 things that make great chefs, and each is applicable to life in general. There is so much for a young reader to get from this book.

It's Willy Wonka meets MasterChef Junior!

Curtis Pith was born to cook. Son when he has a chance to enter a reality show cooking competition for kids, he’s all in. It’s the chance of a lifetime - not just because the prize money could change his whole life, but because he could finally meet his long absent dad, Lucas Taylor, the one and only Super Chef.

With wit, grit and determination, Curtis and his fellow Last Super Chef contestants learn keys to cooking and life. But who will ultimately end up with the keys to the Super Chef kitchen? Read and find out, in The Last Super Chef!

This book was received as an ARC from HarperCollins Children's Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved this book. Being fans of kid food competition shows and previously reading Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff that Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams, I knew I was in for quite the treat with The Last Super Chef. Curtis' story was super relatable and the plot twist of the century that the host of The Last Super Chef Lucas Taylor is Curtis' biological father was just pure brilliance. My interest was strongly invested from beginning to end and I could not put this book down. I loved the book so much that I might recommend it for our next Battle of the Books competition and I know our participants and young community will enjoy this book very much.

We will consider adding this title to our JFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This was a cute concept, but had a lot of things that didn't work for me. Young Curtis Pith dreams of being a chef, not just because he enjoys it, though he really does, but because he thinks that it is in his blood, he believes that Super Chef Lucas Taylor is his father. When the Super Chef announces that not only will this be his last season but that he is hosting a competition for 5 kids who could be the next chef, Curtis feels that he "has" to be in the competition. Fast forward through Curtis, his sister, and his best friend breaking into their landlord's house across the street, and he somehow makes it into the competition. Curtis is used to people fawning over his food, but once at the competition he realizes that while all of his self-taught knowledge is great, the others have had more training from family and more access to expensive ingredients. The competition is challenging on Curtis as he is obsessed with telling Taylor and yet afraid to do so. Other than getting distracted in some of the competitions, Curtis does have a great deal of talent and does well in the competition.

One of the things that frustrated me was that Curtis seemed to think that he was above the rules. He decided to sell fancy cupcakes at a high school basketball game. No school would let that happen, they use those sales for fundraising. He breaks into the house across the street because his landlord has an awesome kitchen. And since when would a house like that be across the street from an apartment building? I highly doubt that any production company would let 5 11 year olds go to NYC without a parent with them, rather having a college intern as a personal babysitter. The other contestants think they are the best, but the majority of them don't even necessarily seem to enjoy cooking. Where is the love of the experience? I get that we are teaching pre-teens to already have their own businesses, but they should at least love what they do.

Kids that love cooking shows will enjoy this book. It was a fun book, just not one that made me want to read it.